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JASON LUJAN
CHIRICAHUA APACHE
NEW YORK, USA
CONCEPTUAL ARTIST
VISITING ARTIST, 2005
My art serves a
means to both
control and release
my identity as an
Indian. It’s not so
much a reflection of
cultural values as
a narrative of how
and what Native
culture could look
like once it escapes
the boundaries
of traditionalism and
parochialism.
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My participation with the NAP allowed me
to experience indigenous material pasts
within contemporary contexts. I handled
ancient objects and considered them not
for their original virtues, but for what
purpose they served now. The comparisons
between the objects and myself, as a
person (with all that the term American
Indian implies), has intensified my desire to
create, create, create.
I want to produce a body of work that
reminds the audience that Native objects
seen and presented in museums are being
presented outside of their original context.
In the museum environment Native objects
are disconnected from their makers’ original
intent. Generally, museum audiences tend
to view cultural objects within the frame-
work of the institution, in a rarified status
that becomes perceived as being their natural
state. I want to illustrate the impossibility
of speaking authentically about the Indian
experience in this environment.